the_singapore_lgbt_encyclopaediawikiaorg-20200215-history
Chinatown, Singapore: gay aspects
Singapore's Chinatown may present a conundrum to the casual visitor as he may wonder why, in a country where the majority of the population are Chinese, one exists. After all, there are no Chinatowns in the other predominantly Chinese societies of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. =Chinese in pre-colonial Singapore= As the enquirer delves into local history, he discovers that the Chinese did not always form the majority race in Singapore. The original inhabitants of Singapore did have extensive contact with the Chinese before the arrival of the British, though. In 1320, the Mongol Yuan dynasty sent a trade mission to a place called Long Ya Men (龙牙门; lóngyámén; Dragon's Teeth Gate), which is believed to be Keppel Harbour at the southern part of the island. The Chinese traveller Wang Dayuan, visiting the island around 1330, described Long Ya Men as one of the two distinct settlements in Dan Ma Xi (單馬錫, a transcription of the Malay Temasek), the other being Ban Zu (班卒; Bānzú; from the Malay pancur meaning "spring"). Ban Zu is thought to be present day Fort Canning Hill and recent excavations here have found evidence indicating that Singapore was already an important settlement in the 14th century. Wang mentioned that the natives of Long Ya Men, thought to be the Orang Laut, lived together with some Chinese who probably indulged in trade. Singapore is one of the oldest locations where a Chinese community is known to exist outside China, and the oldest corroborated by archaeological evidence. =Chinese influx into British Singapore= When Sir Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore on 29 January 1819, he similarly found a sprinkling of Chinese living in a settlement of a few hundred Malays at the mouth of the Singapore River. Raffles soon recognised the island as a natural choice for the new port he coveted and a British base in the region because it lay at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula near the Straits of Malacca and possessed a natural deep harbour, fresh water supplies and timber for repairing ships. It was also located along the main trade route between India and China. The entire place had a total population of about 1000 which consisted of the Orang Laut (sea gypsies), Malays and a few dozen Chinese led by Temenggong Abdul Rahman. The island was nominally ruled by the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Abdul Rahman, who was practically a puppet of the Dutch and the Bugis at the time and hence, would never agree to a British base in Singapore. The Johor Sultanate was further weakened by factional division and Temenggong Abdul Rahman and his officials were loyal to the Sultan's elder brother Tengku Long who was living in exile in Riau. With the Temenggong's help, Raffles managed to smuggle Tengku Long back into Singapore. He offered to recognise Tengku Long as the rightful Sultan of Johor, bestow upon him the title of Sultan Hussein and provide him with a yearly payment of $5000, with an additional $3000 annually to the Temenggong. In return, the newly installed Sultan Hussein would grant the British the right to establish a trading post on Singapore. A formal treaty was signed on 6 February 1819 and modern Singapore was born. , with bamboo pole to hoist and carry heavy loads, circa 1900.]] In his ambition to turn his newly acquired prize into a bustling port, Raffles envisioned a future where the majority of the populace would be Chinese. The British were already eminently aware of the business acumen of the Chinese as the East India Company had been trading in China for almost two centuries. They knew that Chinese port traders were skilful compradors and that Chinese coolies were able to live in meagre conditions with poor remuneration while remaining relatively docile and industrious. To give Singapore a competitive edge against her regional competitors, Raffles made her a free port. The population increased rapidly soon after Raffles' arrival. The first census of 1824 showed that 6,505 out of the 10,683 total were Malays and Bugis. Large numbers of Chinese migrants had also started to enter Singapore just months after it became a British settlement, attracted by the work opportunities. By 1826, a new census recorded that there were already more Chinese than Malays excluding Bugis and Javanese. Due to continual immigration from China, India, Malaya and other parts of Asia, Singapore's population reached nearly 100,000 by 1871, with over half of them Chinese. =Raffles Town Plan= The Raffles Town Plan compartmentalised the ethnic groups as Raffles believed in residential segregation - Europeans should not live together with their impoverished Asian subjects and were indeed separated from them by the Singapore River. The various Asian races were designated individual areas. Even amongst the Chinese, the administrators demarcated separate sections for Hokkiens, Teochews and Cantonese. The Plan aimed to divide the town into 4 functional subdivisions: *The European Town had residents consisting of European traders, Eurasians and later, rich Asians. *An area south of the Singapore River was designated the Chinese Kampong. *The Indian area, called Chuliah Kampong, was located further up the river next to the Chinese zone. The Indians however would later also settle in another area north of the river now called Little India). *Kampong Glam consisted of Muslims, ethnic Malays and Arabs who had migrated to Singapore, and was further divided into three parts, for the Bugis, the Arabs and an area for the Sultan. The division however appeared not to be strictly enforced, as indicated by the presence of Nagore Durgha, Al-Abrar and Jamae mosques in the Chinese Kampong. Thus, from Raffles' vision sprang Chinatown as each ethnic group was not totally free to live wherever it liked under early British rule. =Attitudes of Southern Chinese towards homosexuality= The interaction of Chinese attitudes towards homosexuality and the British colonists' Victorian values shaped the development of homosexual culture in Chinatown and in Singapore. =See also= *Chinatown, Singapore =References= =Acknowledgements= This article was written by Roy Tan. Category:LGBT articles